Chung Keng Quee

Chung Keng Quee was the founder and administrator of modern Taiping in Perak, Malaysia. Appointed "Captain China" by the British in 1877, he was a millionaire philanthropist and known as an innovator in the mining of tin. He was involved in many other industries including farming, pawnbroking and logging.

Chung Keng Quee was born into a peasant Hakka family in Xin Cun village, Cheng Sheng county of Guangdong province, China. It is believed that in 1841, he journeyed from China to British Malaya in a junk, sent by his mother, Madam Lai, to look for his father and brother. He discovered that both his father Hsing Fa and his brother Keng Seng were by that time well established in business. Keng Quee entered the mining business which his father and brother were engaged in. By 1860 he controlled the Penang-based Hai San Secret Society as well as the Larut tin-fields the Hai San were associated with. Information about his career before that time is generally unknown.

By 1887 Chung Keng Quee was the largest tin producer in Perak accounting for almost 29,000 pikuls or 1,700 tons out of a total state output of about 220,000 pikuls or about 13,000 tons—more than what all the foreign mines put together could produce. In the early 1890s Chung Keng Quee was reported to own some of the finest tin mines in Sorakai (Kinta) and Kota (Larut). The Government of India sanctioned the grant of a large concession in Mergui for him to prospect for tin. He also owned the largest alluvial tin mine in the world, the Kwong Lee Mine, which employed 5,000 mining coolies. He was described as a progressive miner, farsighted and innovative.

His other business interests included revenue farming and by 1888 he held the General Farm (taxes upon gambling, spirits and pawnbroking) of Kuala Kangsar, the North and South Larut Coast Farm and the Opium Farm of Lower Perak. In 1890 he obtained the Penang Opium Farm. By 1891 he had the Kinta General Farm and the General Farm and Opium Duty Farm of Kuala Kangsar and in 1895 he had the General Farm of Perak and the Coast and Opium Farms of Lower Perak. He acquired the Kinta General Farm in August 1890 at a considerably reduced price. His exceptional management of the revenue farms entrusted to him helped bring fresh capital into Perak and helped him to become, by 1886, the largest financier in Larut.

Upon his death in 1901, his business activities were managed by his son Chung Thye Phin.